Adult siblings

Do you ever ask yourself why people are the way they are? I have a rough relationship with my brother, and it's so odd to me how we can have such a bad connection when some families seem to be so close.

We grew up ten years apart.  He was already gone to college when I was learning to do long division. We have lived in different countries for 18 years. He doesn't truly know my personality at all, nor I his. He is offended when I cuss. I am offended when he is inconsiderate of my time and work schedule.  We only share one hobby (reading) and have very dissimilar tastes even there.

After hurting each other a lot in the past, I doubt that we can heal.  I wonder sometimes if I care to.  Once our mother passes on and we are no longer are forced to work together to care for her, can we simply drift apart further? I'd love to see my nieces grow up but that will be difficult given the physical distance anyway.  

Do I worry about this or let it go, as my husband might suggest when I am crying and resentful? What does a healthy adult sibling relationship even look like? Advice, Internet world?

FLANC 2010

I've gotten SOOOOO many great ideas here this year!

• First, I finally created my own classroom website. (What have I been waiting for, all these years?!?!) It's https://sites.google.com/site/maestrawhite/ and you are welcome to check it out. I'm still working on it, of course, so be patient with me!
• I got to meet (in person) several of my NCVPS colleagues: Celine, Katya, Ellen Minter, and Johanna. That was a heart-warming moment! We even, maybe, have recruited some new folks . . . Shout-out to Bert at the charter school in Morrisville! :)
• I learned a ton more about LinguaFolio and have gotten the links to tons of resources. Get on the DPI listserv for this if you'd like to start using this in your class. Contact either Helga Fasciano or AnnMarie Gunter to get on that listserv.
  
• Check out the FLANC site for all the presentations from the concurrent sessions, but keep in mind . . . you have to be a FLANC member to access that. Consuleo, Celine, Katya, and I presented Friday: we'll be posting our PowerPoint soon. :)
  
• A great chick named Tamara told us about ways to visit abroad as a poor teacher. :) She mentioned Fulbright-Hayes stuff from the Nationality Endowment for the Humanities (www.neh.gov). She also mentioned scholarships from AATSP (the American Assoc. of Teachers of Spanish and Portugese), an organization that I didn't even know EXISTED! Now I know, as well, that I need to do a Curriculum Vitae instead of a resumé, since so many of these applications require that. Guess I'll have my own little homework to do . . . Wonder if Michael would be willing have me gone for 5 weeks next summer . . . :/
  
• Becuase of Teryn, I now want to have all my students do their work via blogs: they can embed images, embed projects (animotos, glogsters, etc.), embed their own audio, do writing, etc.
• I received some new poems in the heritage Spanish session that I can take home right now and use with my Spanish for Native Speakers class! Yay! I think two that we did today (the LA lady and the Cubano guy's) will tie in perfectly with Cajas de Carton and with the writing we've already done.
• I picked up some "fromage" stuff for Dale to use in his French classes. I couldn't understand a thing that nice lady did but . . . having a cheese tasting sounded nice. :) She had poems and songs in her handouts too, so Dale-bert will love that.

There is just such a big world of info. out there when it comes to World Languages! It's cool to feel a part of all that, even if it's only once a year at FLANC conference. Personally as well as professionally, it has been a fun trip - eating at Mecca, La Volta, The Pit - because of all the neat Raleigh things to do. Well, I'm now only 4 days from leaving for Jamaica, 8 days from my wedding . . . hope I don't go insane!

So, what to do with all these ideas???

• wiki for notes for the juniors, as they read lit. for HW
• blogs for final drafts of essays
• wiki OR blogOR twitter for sentences with weekly vocab.
• blog for grammar notes

Anything else??? Send me an e-mail and give me some ideas, please!

@ FLANC

So . . . I'm at the 2009 FLANC conference and got this crazy idea . . . since I've used blogs and wikis with my NCVPS classes, why not do it with my f2f classes? I don't know HOW I'll use it yet, maybe for literature discussion or something . . . we'll see.

Any ideas, viewing audience???